OCZ Launches Vertex 4 SSDs

Posted on April 06, 2012 By Pedro Hernandez

OCZ rolled out new SSDs for PC users that crave not just speed, but also some peace of mind. The company's newly-launched Vertex 4, its fourth-generation solid-state drive (SSD) for desktops and laptops, ships with enhanced durability features.

The 2.5-inch, MLC-based SATA III SSD uses the company's new 400 MHz dual-core, Indilinx Everest 2 controller to handle data compression and error correction as well as offer automatic encryption (256-bit AES). Thanks to the updated NAND flash management technology called Ndurance 2.0, Vertex 4 SSDs owners will be covered by a five-year warranty, according to the company.

OCZ hopes this vote of confidence will resonate with buyers and alleviate worries storing data on OCZ latest SSDs. Ryan Petersen, OCZ Technology's CEO, said in a company release, "The Vertex 4 represents an evolution in SSD technology and is a milestone product, delivering maximum performance and the highest NAND flash durability to date while eliminating the tradeoffs typically associated with on-the-fly data compression in MLC-based SSDs."

Performance factors in as well. Vertex 4 SSDs can deliver 535 MB per second in sequential reads, and up to 475 MB per second in sequential writes for the 512 GB model -- the drive is available in capacities of 128 GB, 256 GB and 512 GB. All versions are capable of up to 120,000 random IOPS.

For non-compressible data, the drive is capable of 95,000 4K random read IOPS and 85,000 random write IOPS. Latency is rated at 0.04 ms read and 0.02 ms write operations, an 80 percent improvement over Vertex 3, according to the company. Depending on the workload, OCZ's latest drive can outperform its predecessor by as much as 400 percent.

Vertex 4 drives consume 1.3 watts of power while idle and 2.5 watts during periods of activity. According to the company, mean time between failure (MTBF) is rated at 2 million hours.

OCZ's Vertex 4 drives are available now. In retail, prices are currently hovering around the $180 mark for the 128 GB model.

Pedro Hernandez is a contributing editor at InternetNews.com, the news service of the IT Business Edge Network, the network for technology professionals. Previously, he served as a managing editor for the Internet.com network of IT-related websites and as the Green IT curator for GigaOM Pro. Follow him on Twitter @ecoINSITE.